Dream House (2011 Jim Sheridan)

Not, thankfully, one of those silly haunted house shocks and eerie children singing type numbers, plot throws a most confusing bowl a third through that then turns it into something entirely different. In fact I'd love to watch it from the beginning again, this time paying more attention to that odd opening scene at the publishers.

Daniel Craig is charming with real-life sisters Taylor and Claire Geare, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts are the women, and Elias Koteas and Martin Csokas are both familiar to us from here and there as bad guys.

The ending though is slightly loopy, as Craig runs back into burning house to recover his hair dryer (well, something like this, anyway).

East of Eden (1955 Elia Kazan)

Superb use of the CinemaScope frame from Kazan and/or Ted McCord, who lights sensationally - notable use of deep focus in exteriors and interiors; notice also how diffused is the scene where van Fleet and Dean meet properly. In fact it begins in an almost geometric fashion with legendary editor Owen Marks unobtrusively fitting the angles together.

Class act from Warners from Steinbeck's novel, a sort of twisted Cain and Abel story, with the sensational James Dean and Richard Davalos as Raymond Massey's sons, Julie Harris the girl in the middle, Jo Van Fleet the no-good mother and Burl Ives a friendly cop.

Notice also Kazan is doing something distinctive with the father - son scenes with a tilted camera.

Stills packs a bit of a wallop, particularly in scene where Dean loses it with brother.

Music Leonard Rosenman.

The Boat That Rocked (2009 Richard Curtis & scr)

Cut for the acting: look how many reaction shots there are of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Emma Hickox (Anne Coates' daughter) cut it, though arguably it's too edited (more likely Curtis's responsibility). Danny Cohen shot it and it didn't make Q feel sea-sick like last time.

Most enjoyable cast also includes the irrepressible Bill Nighy, Tom Sturridge, Nick Frost, Rhys Ifans, Katherine Parkinson, Chris O'Dowd, Tom Brooke ('thick Kevin', another recognisable Curtis 'type'), Gemma Arterton, Felicity Jones, Talulah Riley, January Jones (didn't notice her), Emma Thompson, Nigel Davenport and a simply sensational Kenneth Branagh.

The ending is a bit yucky in the goes-too-far Curtis way. But still, great fun. And where's Rowan Atkinson?

Mask (1985 Peter Bogdanovich)

Anna Hamilton Phelan has written a very warm script though I wonder if PB had any input - probably.  This - unlike the last one - is distinctly a Peter Bogdanovich Picture, complete with one of his trademark signature extremely long dissolves (this one beginning on a map of Europe).

Eric Stoltz and Cher are fine, Sam Elliott is an actor who does a lot by doing very little. And, when you want a Laura Dern, one comes along.

Quite emotional. And well overdue.

You wouldn't notice Laszlo Kovacs' photography.

A Saintly Switch (1999 Peter Bogdanovich)

Vivica Fox (Kill Bill) and David Alan Grier make a not bad job of being each other in Disney role-switch TV comedy, set in New Orleans and rather refreshingly scored with jazz (Louis Armstrong).

Film is efficient and fun enough, Peter I think enjoying himself with the football scenes.

The fact though that we don't go into the mother's life / career at all is kinda the sexism the film purports to challenge.

Buddy Buddy (1981 Billy Wilder)

Certainly not the turkey the director rated it, but so unloved it's still only available in (non-anamorphic) Spanish print.

Beautifully constructed as always, plenty of smart gags from Billy and Izzy Diamond. Shot by Harry Stradling Jr in Panavision. With Paula Prentiss, Klaus Kinski, Miles Chapin (bellhop) and Joan Shawlee, from Francis Verber play.

Rio Bravo (1959 Howard Hawks)

Previously 24/2/08. I managed to get this on by telling Q it's one of the most cheerful westerns ever made, and it is just great, though the opening moments are still quite shocking (and give the plot its bite). Apparently last time when I watched it on my own as a Sunday morning film, it went on so long 'Q got pissed off and we had a rar. Ended up eating apple turnover and carrot cake'. Well, there you are. It has a particularly friendly action climax.

Much enjoyed those moments that seem improvised, through the reactions of (a) John Wayne as he has kissed Walter Brennan's head (b) Dean Martin reacting again to one of Walter's jokes.

It's beautifully simply filmed - the camera hardly ever moves. And brilliantly written - Jules Furthman (The Big Sleep, To Have and have Not, Shanghai Express, Only Angels Have Wings) and Leigh Brackett (The Big Sleep, El Dorado).

Features John Wayne, Dean Martin (scarily good as alky), Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, John Russell, Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez, Estelita Rodriguez, Claude Akins. Shot by Mockingbird's Russell Harlan.

Hawks - good old Hawks - was the pioneer of the buddy movie.

Together Again (1944 Charles Vidor)

A real treat to discover this for the first time. Irene Dunne in particular shines, with Charles Boyer, Charles Coburn (in possibly his funniest role), Mona Freeman and Jerome Courtland (great fun as laconic Texan beau; from the sixties was a TV director). And Charles Dingle (from The Little Foxes).

Written by Virginia Van Upp and F. Hugh Herbert, for Columbia; shot by Joe Walker (who nicely lights his rain).

Mother's being a bit 'leapy'.

Soulboy (2010 Shimmy Marcus)

Not terribly well directed or written account of young man (Martin Compston) who joins 1970s Wigan craze for soul music (where suspiciously there are no black people), falling for the wrong girl (Nichola Burley, Death Comes to Pemberley) instead of the right one (Felicity Jones). Also with Alfie Allen, Craig Parkinson (from Indian Summers etc.), Jo Hartley (The Mimic, This is England).

Sort of The Apartment. Very visible plot. Ends up a fifties teen movie, and the final dance-off somehow becomes Enter the Dragon (whether by chance or not).

Made me want to see a film about a northern Chinese takeaway, over the decades.

A Night to Remember (1942 Richard Wallace)

Bad. Feels like it's a kids' Saturday morning serial. Plummy goings-on in Greenwich Village.

Loretta Young, Brian Aherne. Shot by Joseph Walker at Columbia, but still....

The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940 Alexander Hall)

Confirmed spinster - the horse-faced Loretta Young - finds herself 'married' to research physician Ray Milland (who's bouncy in these early comedy roles). Rather interestingly cut for a film of its age (Viola Lawrence: Lady from Shanghai and Only Angels Have Wings) e.g. on dialogue.

Plenty of laughs e.g. scene involving neighbour's apartment. There sure are a lot of people knocking on this couple's door.

With Reginald Gardiner, Gail Patrick, Edmund Gwenn. Shot by Sid Hickox.

Town on Trial (1956 John Guillermin)

John Mills (looking over-tanned as usual for films of this period) in gruff turn as chip-on-shoulder Superintendent who despises small town tennis-club antics whilst trying to solve murder. With Charles Coburn, Barbara Bates, Derek Farr (the faux air force ace), young Alec McCowen (absolutely unrecognisable from Frenzy and Travels with My Aunt), Margaretta Scott (with the wild dancing, yeah?), Raymond Huntley.

Distinguished by lots of police cars pulling up too quickly in front of the camera.

John Jympson (also connected to Frenzy) was the assembly cutter (unusual to see that credit). His interesting credits include:

A French Mistress (1960), Zulu, A Hard Day's Night, The Bedford Incident, Kaleidascope, Where Eagles Dare, Kelly's Heroes, Deadfall and Frenzy and then runs into more disappointing material through the seventies and eighties

Hollywoodland (2006 Allen Coulter)

Paul Bernbaum has written the story of George Reeves' 1950s TV career as Superman, in parallel with Adrien Brody's private eye investigating his death. Has the feel of Chinatown (even down to Marcelo Darvos' music) with undercurrent of police corruption and Studio manipulation, though it presents different versions of events without resolution in a fairly low key style.

Brody is rather good; so is Diane Lane as his married lover. With Ben Affleck, Bob Hoskins, Robin Tunney and Caroline Dhavernas.

Coulter is largely a TV director, with many episodes of The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire to his credit.

Good quip ensues. Q: "You don't see enough of Adrien Brody."
Me: "Not even in his own films."
(A reference to The Thin Red Line from which he was almost completely excised.)

Now Is Good (2012 Ol Parker)

Something stilted about some of the early scenes made me wonder if it was the acting (Jeremy Irvine is questionable) or the dialogue (Parker has adapted Jenny Downham's novel 'Before I Die'). Also, does Dakota Fanning live in the UK now? Or am I thinking of some other American girl who was in that Up North film.... (Yes, you are. That was Elle Fanning, in Ginger and Rosa.)

Paddy Considine and Olivia Williams are the parents, Kaya Scodelario a friend. Olivia is terrific, especially in hospital scenes.

The boy (Edgar Canham) has some good lines e.g.
"When Tessa's dead, can we go on holiday?"

Shot by Erik Wilson.

OK to Good.

The River (1951 Jean Renoir)

Adapted from her somewhat autobiographical novel (1946) by Rumer Godden.

Nora Swinburn and Esmond Knight are the parents of Patricia Walters, Richard Foster etc. Next door lives Thomas Breen and nephew Arthur Shields, and daughter Radha. Adrienne Corri is a wilful friend.

Beautifully lit by Claude Renoir, film has a simple, gentle approach, punctuated by dissolves.

The boy's intense fascination with the cobra is transfixing, as is the story about Krishna / dance sequence. I love the scene where all three girls have received letters from the young man ... but as they hear the new born baby's cries, they all drop them...

Notice how in the scene where Walters and Corri 'grow up' the music changes to classical after being ethnic Indian all the way through.

One of those films that grows on you after you've seen them.

The Young in Heart (1938 Richard Wallace)

A David Selznick production, adapted from the serial 'The Gay Banditti' by Hitchcock regular Charles Bennett, featuring a family of con artists comprising Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Beulah Bondi and Roland Young, who chance upon old lady Minnie Dupree (one of only two features). Paulette Goddard turns up also.

Quite fun, 'Flying Wombat' etc. Good hearted.

Shot by Leon Shamroy; music Franx Waxman.

The Descendants (2011 Alexander Payne)

Yes, again. It's become one of our favourites.

Interestingly in the extras there's no mention of Faxon and Rash at all, with all the script credit going to Payne.

All the compositions are very carefully worked out. There's a great moment with Krause and Miller dancing in a corridor which is just out of focus.

The Aviator (2004 Martin Scorsese)

Wonderfully recreates the two-strip / three-strip development of Technicolor, managed by Robert Legato as head of vfx on top of Robert Richardson's Oscar-winning Panavision photography (Thelma also won).

Too long, like most of Marty's films. Spectacular crash sequence. Inspired performance of Katharine Hepburn by Cate Blanchett (won Oscar). Investigation scene by Alan Alda (really great; nominated) is neatly turned on itself in writer John Logan's more successful moments (he wrote the equally long Skyfall and Gladiator). Otherwise problem is we don't know anything much about Hughes, or care.

Very interesting sound editing by Oscar-nominees Tom Fleischman and Petur Hiddal in which we're getting cross-dissolves of the (most interesting) music tracks.

Also with Alec Baldwin (who I now find difficult to take seriously, but is having a career renaissance since Woody's latest Blue Jasmine, the Alzheimer's pic Still Alice and Cameron Crowe's new one Aloha), John C Reilly, Jude Law, Kate Beckinsale, Ian Holm and Danny Huston.

Last Year at Marienbad (1961 Alain Resnais)

Some of it, anyway, but does that matter. View film from middle, backwards if you may, it will still work.

One of my favourite bits of editing EVER.

Noticed this time that people keep popping up in a scene where they couldn't possibly be - out of time, out of context....

Hollywood Ending (2002 Woody Allen & scr)

http://nicksfilmjottings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/hollywood-ending-2002-woody-allen.html

It's very funny and totally underrated.

Date Night (2010 Shawn Levy)

Particularly when seen back-to-back with Avanti suffers from poor script. The outtakes are the best bit, which signifies something has gone wrong with the rest of the film.  Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Taraji P Henson (who has a nice face), JB Smoove, Kristen Wiig

Photographed in the Panavision process by Dean Semler.

Still, it passes the time of day.

I did though want something epic, and had been mooting The Aviator and La Meglio Gioventu. The Sand Pebbles would be another good one, though don't in fact possess a copy....

Avanti

Noticed little Lubitsch subtleties like the dog which knows there's been a murder. Also, the coffee scene - Lemmon drinks it, adds milk, adds sugar, seems to be appreciating it more, then heads to the bathroom and - off camera - we hear him flushing it down the toilet.

There's that feeling which is well caught in Elizabethtown of a character slowly thawing to a place - to a woman, the delicious Juliet Mills, whose best film this is. It's a pleasure to see these actors at work.

It ends where They All Laughed begins.

And here's some stuff about Izzy Diamond.

The Story of Three Loves (1952, rel. 1953, Curtis Reinhardt, Vincente Minnelli)

Odd MGM short film collection, tenuously linked.

Moira Shearer gets her chance to show off her admittedly impressive stuff to James Mason and a background of 'Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini' by Rachmaninov.

Brattish youth in Rome magically becomes Farley Granger overnight and romances French governess Leslie Caron. There's a nice dog in this one. This is the Minnelli episode.

In the best and tensest sequence, acrobat Kirk Douglas rescues Pier Angeli and enjoins him to his terrifying act, which looks like is all shot for real with the highest of high cameramen (no back projection I'm sure), sound men and director (had they the nerve to join them that high up). (I misremembered that it was Burt Lancaster who was the real former acrobat.) Angeli - when not stunt doubled - looks as confident as Douglas. Surely this inspired Trapeze?

With Ethyl Barrymore, Agnes Moorehead.

Shot beautifully by the great early film camermen combo of Charles Rosher and Harold Rosson, though whether they shared or split.. The great website http://www.cinematographers.nl/GreatDoPh/rosson.htm suggests Rosson did the Rome story.

Miklos Rozsa scored, so overall largely watchable:

Miklós Rózsa devotes a relatively large amount of space in his memoir, Double Life, to The Story of Three Loves—which he described as “a delightful picture”—and in particular to “The Jealous Lover.” The filmmakers asked Rózsa to write a short ballet, which would be needed in a week. “I had to tell Franklin [one of the few producers the composer liked and admired] that although Rossini wrote an opera in ten days, I couldn’t do an original ballet in so short a time.” Initially, he proposed using the love music from César Franck’s tone poem Psyché (1888), but neither producer nor director cared for the piece. Then the composer recalled a recent Hollywood Bowl concert in which he had conducted Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943) with a young André Previn as piano soloist. He suggested it to the filmmakers and “this time they were delighted.”

Souce: http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/notes/story_of_three_loves.html

Manhattan (1979 Woody Allen)

Not sure really why Woody doesn't rate this - it's one of his best.

Mariel Hemingway is so real that she breaks your heart time and again.

See here.

Serena (2014 Susanne Bier)

We like Susanne Bier, having seen Love Is All You Need, which has the much better original title of 'The Bald Hairdresser', and again she really makes the most of her female lead, here the fabulous Jennifer Lawrence. She (Susanne) has the tendency to leave the camera on her subject slightly longer than you would think seemly. (This is a good thing by the way - film seems to have been extremely unfairly reviewed.)

'Love Is All You Need' is one of those instantly forgettable titles like all of Douglas Sirk's films. Then, if you look at Wilder, we have a whole coterie of memorable titles: Five Graves to Cairo, Double Indemnity, The Apartment, Some Like It Hot etc. I'm just saying. This one could have been called 'A Useful Woman'.

Anyway, Bradley Cooper takes on tough eagle-taming girl in lumber business, becoming involved with taciturn Rhys Ifans, who wouldn't look out of place in a Sergio Leone western, Toby Jones, and the wonderful Sean Harris, who we didn't recognise at all.

"Oh well done," I said, "That's it, go round wounding pumas. Hopefully the puma will get him back." Right on cue, the puma attacks. So I was kind of happy about that ending.

Somewhat confusingly I thought we would be watching Selma, but that is another film altogether.

The Hundred Year Old man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared / Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann (2013 Felix Herngren & scr)

Robert Gustaffson, Iwar Wiklander, David Wiberg.

Don't quite know why this didn't work as well as the book (by Jonas Jonasson); feels like a series of cartoons with no character or substance.

The Judge (2014 David Dobkin)

Somewhat predictable occurrings as lawyer Robert Downey moves home to defend Judge father Robert Duvall on murder charge, very well acted by these two and Up in the Air's Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton (who arrives at the right time), Vincent D'Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Leighton Meester and Emma Tremblay who - as the daughter - should have been in it more.

We're in the safe hands of Janusz Kaminski, Mark Livolsi and Thomas Newman (I wish I'd known that at the outset); from a screenplay by Nick Schenk  and Bill Dubuque (both pretty much beginners), based on a story to which Dobkin contributed.

The Imitation Game (2014 Morten Tyldum)

Very skilfully screenwritten by Graham Moore (a virtual beginner, who won the Oscar), based on Andrew Hodges' book, most successful film is beautifully performed by Benedict Cumberbatch, Kiera Knightley (both nominated), Mark Strong (who's terrific, every bit as good as Benedict), Charles Dance (getting great parts in the later years of his career), Matthew Goode, Allen Leech (Downton), Matthew Beard, Rory Kinnear (wonderful) and Alex Lawther (as the young Turing).

Alexandre Desplatt's music and William Goldenberg's editing were also nominated. Photographed in Panavision by Oscar Faura. Tyldum made Headhunters - they couldn't find a Brit to make quintessentially British movie.

It's a shocking story about what we did to one of our heroes.

The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (2004 Wendy Apple)

Comments:

Ignores (as does everyone) the Brighton School (and Abel Gance).
Quotes Hitchcock (Vertigo) in the wrong place (referring to the standard master shot / two shot language).
Doesn't spend nearly enough time on the sixties and the nouvelle vague (where's Hiroshima mon Amour for example, or my personal favourite Last Year at Marienbad, and the knock-on effect in the UK and throughout Europe, Czech cinema, par example?)
And - crime of crimes - to feature Tony Gibbs but to not show any of his films??
Perhaps not enough on not cutting e.g. Wyler The Little Foxes.
And of course, let's not mention Powell and Pressburger. Let's not, by all means.

That clip though from Man with a Movie Camera is SENSATIONAL.
Shows how closely some directors are working with their editors (Spielberg, Tarantino, Payne).
Most interesting contribution of Jack Nicholson to his montage in The Pledge (the great Jay Cassidy).

The One and Only (1978 Carl Reiner)

Has that slightly loose feel of a Carl Reiner. We only watched it last summer. As I couldn't talk Q into watching the fabulous Kathleen Byron in Black Narcissus.

Terms of Endearment (1983 James L Brooks)

Last seen 13 January 2013.

A pleasure to see Shirley Maclaine and Jack Nicholson together - they both seem younger than I remember, though Jack does nothing to hide his belly.

True Grit (2010 Joel and Ethan Coen, & scr)

Can only understand one in every two of Jeff Bridge' sentences. Hailee Steinfeld great, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper

Ph. Roger Deakins, and operated. At this point had been nominated for 10 Oscars and won none. Roger won his third BAFTA and the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award. His lighting in dark scenes wonderful, opening shot, also those bleak woods; and a crane shot over the horizon that makes mountains appear.

The dead man whose teeth are traded a typically Coen moment; long range sniper moment perfect; great lines especially those for Hailee's character.

Brought The Searchers to mind more than once, and made me want to watch it and Rio Bravo, Butch Cassidy, The Wild Bunch and Liberty Valance.

AMOLAD

There comes a time when only Michael Powell's red will do. An endlessly fascinating film, it has taken me years to see it finally as a series of beautifully constructed hallucinations.

There are some of those fantastically fast cuts; bits that look like Cocteau shot them; love the camera work in the ping pong scene; intimate close ups.

It's absolutely without equal.

http://nicksfilmjottings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/a-matter-of-life-and-death-1945-powell.html

A Civil Action (1998 Steven Zailiian & scr)

Reunites Zaillian with Conrad Hall from 1993's wonderful Searching for Bobby Fischer. 

Not absolutely convinced by Travolta's lopsided grin - Robert Duvall though is wonderful. I notice that hands (restless, anguished etc) are often prominent. Conrad is doing his usual lighting the unexpected, favouring desk lamps and trying to draw the colour out of everything (I laughed at the 'blue' skies in a couple of scenes). Plus water, and glasses.

Also with Tony Shaloub, Zeljko Ivanek, William H Macy, John Lithgow, an impressive James Gandolfini and - of all people - Stephen Fry.

Most rewarding. Usually well written.

Pride (2014 Matthew Warchus)

I know - who? And written by the equally famous Stephen Beresford, film inhabits familiar feel-good Brits nostalgia territory. Ben Schnetzer is rather good leading a rather good cast also comprising Dominic West, Freddie Fox, Bill Nighy, Andrew Scott Jessica Gunning, Paddy Considine, Imelda Staunton, Liz White and Joseph Gilgun.

Shot by Tat Radcliffe and edited by Melanie Oliver.

Yes, yes.

Rebel Without a Cause (1955 Nicholas Ray)

Still in Natalie Wood mode we see the 16-year old winning her first Oscar nomination across from James Dean (24, died just before film's release) and puppy dog Sal Mineo. Ray shoots especially the family scenes really well, often at an angle, and there's a terrific moment where domineering mother Ann Doran gets involved in fight with dad Jim Backus (great*) and the camera tilts. The acting is all good but Dean is so extraordinarily real that it's a wonder he wasn't nominated himself.

Subject matter must have been sensational when film was released, and still just as relevant. The character Dean plays is not the Rebel of the title, however - he is in fact trying to be a decent man.

Still has very exciting scenes, e.g. fight outside planetarium, chicken race. Well lit by Ernie Haller in CinemaScope, great score by Leonard Rosenman.

I love colour films from the fifties. There's something about the artificiality of them that I like. Even the way way the shot quality deteriorates at each dissolve...

* Much work on TV, known for something called Gilligan's Island and as the voice of Mr Magoo.

American Beauty (1999 Sam Mendes)

"Like you pointed out earlier, I don't quite understand what I'm doing most of the time... I just feel it" - Conrad Hall to Sam Mendes. Magritte and Edward Hopper come up in conversation over Sam's beautifully drawn, well-prepared storyboards in which he sounds like he definitely knows his film shit (referencing The Apartment and Welles' Othello). But Conrad would often bring a new idea, especially for the shot, and in bringing 'peace' to a scene. Mendes also comments on how Conrad often lights the foreground of a shot with a key light to give it depth where most people would light the background. In fact if you look at it, it's often the thing that isn't important to a scene that is lit.

Conrad's initial problem - that the audience might not feel empathy for the lead character - was dealt with by Mendes asking him 'Don't you ever have bad thoughts, eye your daughter's girlfriend?' But Sam admits having had that conversation was important for him to keep in mind.

The acting is also great and it's odd how little you hear of Thora Birch, Wes Bentley and Mena Suvari (good). With Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening (particularly good), Chris Cooper, Allison Janney and Peter Gallagher.

Conrad catches that red symbol the whole way through, and that ending (gun pans to head, pans to wall, to red) is one of those unbeatable cinematic moments, as is camera chasing plastic bag. Really well written by Alan Ball, with a tremendous and simple score by Thomas Newman (using all manner of exotic percussions) who with Bening and editors Tariq Anwar and Christopher Greenbury were Oscar nominated - wins went to film, director, screenplay, actor and cinematography.

The Mystery of Natalie Wood (2004 Peter Bogdanovich)

A useful, successful dramatised autobiography, co-produced by sister Lana Wood, featuring people who knew her for real, Peter's 2 1/2 hour TV film seems limited by time and budget in terms of delivering his usual cinematic richness (though his very long dissolves are still in evidence). Justine Waddell (and Elizabeth Rice) are not at all bad as Natalie, Michael Weatherly is Wagner, Matthew Settle, with Colin Friels etc.  I must admit to not knowing hardly any of this cast nor the cameraman (John Stokes, in 4x3), composer (Richard Marvin) or editor (Scott Vickrey), though the latter has been cutting episodes of TV's super-slick The Good Wife.

It moves along briskly and is full of fascinating detail (e.g. the number of great actors she had already appeared with as a child star, her affair with Nicholas Ray, aged only 16, her corrosive mother) and ultimately provides a horrible death-by-drowning finale.

Of the children Courtney Wagner has avoided the acting business but Natasha Gregson Wagner has appeared in tons of (mainly TV) things.

Sex and the Single Girl

http://nicksfilmjottings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/sex-and-single-girl-1964-richard-quine.html

This is 40

Seen last here, film suffers from an improvvy feel, but does have one or two funny moments.

Rudd's character is quite a shit.

Molly Shad is indeed Judd Apatow's grandmother.

Too long, like most modern comedies.

Going My Way (1944 Leo McCarey)

Bing Crosby wins over Barry Fitzgerald and assorted NYC people while managing to get a few numbers in. Frank McHugh, James Brown, Gene Lockhart, Jean Heather, Porter Hall, Fortunio Bonanova and the gooey pasty Risë Stevens (who does sing a nice aria from Carmen).

Even though there are rather too many songs they do mainly propel the story forwards.

Has a slightly static feel, like the editing could have been tightened up.

This is the one McCarey won the Oscar for, and told the audience the Academy had given it to him for the wrong film! He wrote the original story too.

A winning, humane film.